Even before Star Trek: Discovery started to be released, Aaron Harberts was hopeful that this season could tie up some of the loose ends of continuity as regards how the series related to the rest of the Star Trek franchise, thereby answering inevitable questions about that aspect of the show. "What I hope happens is [...] [in the] second season, we'll start creating our own slice of it," he said, "so that we're adding to canon in our way, and those questions come up less and less." [1]

Harberts also expressed interest in the possibility of this season including many episodes which Akiva Goldsman will direct. [2]

On 23 October2017, it was announced that the series had been renewed for a second season. [3]

It was originally reported that Season 2 will have two fewer episodes than Season 1, but Anson Mount revealed on December 8, 2018 that an additional episode was added. [7][8]

In May 2018, co-creator Alex Kurtzman stated that season two wouldn't be broadcast until 2019 at the earliest. "Breaking story is, in some ways, the easier and faster thing; it's the ability to execute on it that's much harder. We want to take the right amount of time and don't want to rush," he stated. [9] In July 2018, he confirmed that the season premiere was being targeted for release in January 2019. [10]

Harberts and Gretchen J. Berg resigned as showrunners after production on the fifth episode, after the budget for the season premiere overran, and reports that they had become abusive towards the show's writers. [11]

The season premiere date was announced at the New York Comic Con Discovery panel on 6 October2018, [12] and a trailer for the season was shown, being released online immediately after. [13]

As with the first season, episodes will be released internationally on Netflix the day after their CBS All Access debut. [14]

Unlike the first season, however, there was not a mid-season break. [15]